Solution to Carnatic Cryptic Crossword Puzzle #2

Here is an explanation as to how the answers are indicated by the clues for cryptic crossword newbies. Hopefully this will help you learn to tackle future puzzles:

1A – PANTUVARALI (pantuvarALi):Unscramble (assembly as in take parts and put together) the letters in the word A natural VIP to get the answer.

2D – REVIEW: Re is short form of Again (as used in different words), view is implied by take a look. These together form the answer review, i.e. as in evaluating a (carnatic or other) performance.

3D – GARBHAPURI (garbhapuri): This is the mudra, signature (or sign left by composer to indicate ownership in a song) of two brothers from Karur. Actuallhy there are four of them, but it is believed that two of them were the main composers. The popular Sri rAga varnam sAmi ninnE kOri is a composition by them and the mudra occurs in the anupallavi.

4D – VARALI (varALi): It is a fairly well known superstition that teachers do not teach this raga, as it is supposed to break the teacher-student relationships. So it is not uncommon that w.r.t songs in varALi as well as raga aesthetics – you have to learn them all by yourself !

5D – RAMAMATYA (rAmAmAtya): He wrote one the earliest books outlining melakartas – svaramELakalAnidhi (1550AD). Works earlier than this refer to the earlier grama-murchana system. His name us constructed from Rama (Thyagaraja’s Lord) and (joins) Matya (a tala, the beat).

6D – MANASA (mAnasa/manasA): The answer stands for the telugu word meaning mind, and one that Thyagaraja uses profusely in his songs (hence Thyagaraja’s Mind). It is formed my combing ma (Mother) and nasa (i.e. NASA, the US space agency).

7A – DATTILA (dattila): The answer refers to a person who wrote dattilam one of the earliest works on Indian classical Music (early part of very millenium AD). The name is constructed by unscrambling (incorrectly) the letters Dial, A, T and T.

8D – DUDUKU GALA (duDuku gala): This is one of the pancharatna compositions (gem of a song) of Thyagaraja. With play on words, you can see that the title starts with duD (starts with a dud) and ends with gala (has a gala ending)

9D – SEMMANGUDI (semmangudi): The answer refers to the legendary Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, sometimes simply referred to as semmangudi. It can arrived at by unscrambling (about) the words amusing Med.

10D – KANAKANGI (kanakangi): This is the first mela. It can be arrived by combining (and unscrambling) the words Kannagi and Kan, where the latter word Kan is formed by taking the word Kovalan and discarding (looses) oval (shape).

11A – SAMI NINNE (sAmi ninnE): This is the starting words of many a varnam. It can be formed from (source) the unscrambling of the words Anne’s mini.

12A – TAKITA (takiTa i.e. ta Ki Ta): This is percussion pattern for a triplet beat (triple doses). It can be constructed by taking the word Tata (Ratan as in Ratan Tata) and placing inside it the letters KI (Chemistry symbol for Potassium Iodide).

13A – KUTCHERI (kutcheri): Take the word Trick,and scramble it (Strange) with the word hue to get the word kutcheri (performed to a crowd).